Mapping monuments in Delhi: Officials can’t locate 13

NEW DELHI: How do you protect the exclusive zone around a protected monument when the monument itself is missing? This is the perplexing problem in front of officials who are developing an online map-based portal for issuing a no-obstruction certificate for construction in the vicinity of such structures.

The municipal corporations have set up the portal with geo-spatial mapping of the city monuments under the protection of the Archaeological Survey of India as a part of their reforms on ease of doing business. There are officially 174 ASI-protected monuments in the city, but South Delhi Municipal Corporation is unable to locate 13 of them. Many others have been heavily encroached upon. No construction activity is allowed in a 100-metre radius of a protected monument. Permission from ASI is required for any work taking place 300 metres from it. “People can access the marked maps and see if the construction site falls in a protected zone,” an SDMC official said. An official of SDMC’s heritage cell told TOI that despite provisions for hefty fines and even imprisonment for encroaching on monument areas, the situation was only getting worse. In fact, the case of the “missing monuments” is nothing new: for long 11 had proved hard to locate, but two new additions — both in Munirka — to the list highlight the extent of the problem. “The two structures in Munirka went ‘missing’ only this year. The rules were made stringent in 2010 and provided for fines up to Rs 1 lakh and an imprisonment of up to 30 months in cases where ancient monuments were threatened,” the official said. So far, around 150 monuments have been covered under the exercise. Another official added, “Besides the 13 missing monuments, encroachment is also a big issue. The protected zones around these monuments are being demarcated.” Missing monuments and encroachments have been a long-standing problem in Delhi. A public notice issued by National Monuments Authority a long time ago had mentioned 11 missing monuments. One monument, Sat Narayan Bhawan, was denotified, but the notification was quashed by Delhi high court. In July, the Rajya Sabha was told that the expenditure incurred on conservation, preservation and environmental development of centrally protected monuments and sites in Delhi in the last three years stood at Rs 31.9 crore. According to the reply in Parliament, 174 monuments and sites in Delhi are “monuments of national importance” under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958. Ghaziuddin Khan Tomb, Ajmeri Gate, Delhi Gate and Feroz Shah Kotla are some of these centrally protected monuments in the city.